Vote at the meeting at Institute of Economic Affairs, London, oct. 8th 2002
Scepticism towards the EU has grown in Switzerland in recent years. Although a majority in the French-speaking part of the country voted in favour of EU accession in the EEA referendum out of the traditional, deeply rooted opposition spirit of the minority, scepticism has now become the majority view there, too. Today, 40 percent of the population at most are in favour of joining, despite the government, backed by the centre-left media, waging a permanent propaganda campaign under the guise of ‚information‘. To all intents and purposes, the political leader of the EU sceptics is the industrialist and liberal-conservative Christoph Blocher, whose party, the Swiss People’s Party, has the support of a good 20 percent of the electorate, making it one of the four major parties. Christoph Blocher has undergone the transformation from ’no-man‘ to ‚agenda setter‘, attracting support particularly among the young. Much-chided by his rivals in the established middle-class parties as ‚yesterday’s man‘, he evidently has a good nose for future opportunity.
EU scepticism will be high on the agenda all over Europe and a price will have to be paid for Maastricht-Europe being designed and consolidated as a corporatist ‚harmonisation club‘ (big business plus big government plus social-democratic redistributors and interventionists) at the wrong time (end phase of the Cold War) instead of as a deregulatory club and a free trade and peace treaty. Of promise for the future would be a confederation of states on the basis of free trade, secured by a peace treaty with a permanent non-aggression pact and reciprocal arms control according to the motto: ‚No to the constraints of post-war policy that has been over-regulated in every respect– yes to a relatively apolitical civil society and peaceful competition between different national and local varieties of regulatory policy.‘
In the EU today the political process does not target the majority population base, and this will cause increasing problems.
The so-called democratisation process that is being touted as an antidote is likely to exacerbate the problems more than anything else, since the majority principle violates minorities, promotes centralisation and diminishes competition and creative diversity. Diversity in freedom has been the historic secret of success for both Europe and Switzerland; if it is combined with free trade and peace, we have no need to worry about the future in the global framework.
I am not so sure that the EU, with its current interventionist and centralist structures, will in reality be able to cope with its eastern expansion. One day we may look back full of nostalgia to the missed opportunities of a gradual and tailor-made, flexible deregulatory free-trade zone in Europe known as EFTA. Regrettably, as an EFTA member Switzerland has neglected to maintain a Europe-compatible safety net at the ready as a second option or even to assume the lead in this respect. The government in Berne prefers to howl with the wolves and bleat with the sheep whilst endeavouring to remove the last vestiges of Switzerland’s inherent originality, creativity and dissidence.